Multimedia, literally, means multi or many media. We have audio and video among other form of possible media, to enhance plain, boring text and graphics based Net surfing. The greater the multimedia effects we manage to download or experience online, the easier it is for us to deal with hard-hitting telephone bills.
Apart from sound and video cards that need to be installed for multimedia, however, we now have other exciting options like plug-ins, skins, streaming media and more.
Plug-ins
Pieces of software you can install on your computer to extend the capabilities of your browser or other applications. Imagine an audio player (which itself is plug-in) on the computer, with which you can only hear music and not play around with it, like edit tracks, compile lists, and get into the finer nuances of sound-adjustment.
On the other hand, imagine cool software applications like RealPlayer, Winamp or Sonique where all the fun stuff is possible, along with a lot more. A must have is one or many of the various audio players available in the download market today. From RealPlayer to Winamp they all come with various add-ons or more plug-ins. Sonique, for example, has a visual plug-in that generates amazing visuals which vary with the kind of music being played. These can also be enlarged to fit your entire screen. A warning though: don't not stare at it too long, unless you want a headache.
RealPlayer allows you to view highly compressed audio and video files through a process called streaming. It helps you listen to the radio, play your own songs, watch movie clips and more. Of course, the add-ons help you fiddle around with settings, audio or video editing, or sound-mixing. Then, from Apple, comes Quicktime for playing video clips and movie trailers.
Plug-ins are simple to install, and are usually accompanied by installation instructions after downloading. It is important to realise that you shouldn't download all possible plug-ins and opt, instead, for the more useful ones like Shockwave and Macromedia Flash which make things amazingly interactive. Most current browsers come with in-built Flash plug-ins but, for those without it, you don't know what you're missing.
A great site to visit is Piano Graphique, purely for the creative types. It has a section devoted to making your own sounds using the keyboard, and another to help you generate your own most amazing visuals, from the arty to retro to whatever you demand.
If these aren't enough, you can always browse for more plug-ins at an exhaustive site like Browser Watch.
Another great site is Dave Central. From a visualiser plug-in called ArKaos Visualiser 1.0 for Winamp and SoundJam, to CineWeb 1.00.11, a video player, and Flazhsoft MP3 2.0, an audio player, it has a mind-boggling list of products. Some sites also have their own special plug-ins to let users play their online games or watch video clips. These include Bay Insider, Reflector, Go PBI, and Sofla among many others.
With your plug-ins in place, you can now go in for some streaming radio and video at places like Vivo, the BBC, NetRadio or LiveOnline.
Gaming, on the Net or offline, can also be made a better experience, with some plug-ins like XenoMAME32dirs.zip, a user-created set of three plug-ins and wizard, to set directories used by the game MAME32. You can download this one here and the page also lists other plug-ins like one for Logitech wheel mouse owners, to be used properly for games.
For all you Quake fans, the Quake 3 Fortress Update (a Beta version) of the popular Q3 Fortress, a plug-in, is available at Macgamefile along with hot new maps to play the game.
At PlanetQuake you can get QuArk plug-ins, useful for all you Half Life freaks. These plug- ins help you make corridors, act as side plug-ins, and even assist in path duplication.
Skins
And then you have skins: popular enhancements to make your application interface look more attractive. For gaming freaks, awesome Counter Strike skins are available in plenty here and here, while Half Life skins can be found here.
The most popular skin sites on the Net though, seem to be for Winamp and ICQ. 1001 WinAmp skins or 1001 ICQ skins are options, along with Best Skins and Sonique Skins.
Skins.Org features a listing of the most popular skins today, all available for download, and AnySkins or FunSkins gets you specialised skins on celebs like Britney Spears, Ricky Martin and Pamela Anderson.
And for those with any more questions on streaming audio and
video, turn to Streaming Media World, which features reviews of different audio and video systems,
tutorials on every aspect of streaming media, and the latest
industry news.
So, while you surf, have some fun with plug-ins, enjoy audio and video editing, streaming media, game add-ons, feast your eyes on some great skins and benumb your senses with Flash effects. In a word, enjoy.
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